Wednesday, 29 April 2009

Released on DefJam in 94',pretty much this whole album was produced by the Reggie Noble himself with a little bit of sly help from Eric Sermon & Rockwilder.

This is a ridiculously funked out album. Redman is one of my favourite rappers, he is extremely underrated, it's a shame because most people just think he's just that stoner from How High who's friends with Meth. If you listen to what he's saying, his flows and content are ridiculous. The beats on this are overly Funky, Red's album cover is a homage to the 1971 Funkadelic Lp, 'Maggot Brain.'

This album is extremely dope not in the least because Redman produced the whole thing, but also because it's on a different, darker deep tip than his previous release, 'Whut! Thee Album'. He managed to switch his whole style up but remain quintessentially Redman!

When Red released this album he was just reaching his peak rolling with Eric Sermon & Keith Murray and the rest of the Def Squad, he would go on to make the third of his three classic albums, 'Muddy Waters' in 96'. At this timeThe Funk Doc was also repping hard for Def Jam, moving units and selling out concerts. Those three albums are why everyone still loves him now and he gets to make movies and TV shows n such.

Fu*k all this new sh*t their trying to pass off as music on the radio, listen to some real funky sh*t that will do something new for you everytime.

Thursday, 16 April 2009

Big Daddy Kane is one of my favourite rappers. Straight out of Brooklyn, NY he's one of hip hop's lyrical founding fathers. He is also a member of the legendary Juice crew which contains such esteemed emcees as MC Shan, Masta Ace, Marley Marl, Roxanne Shante & Biz Markie. You can check out the famous Juice Crew joint 'The Symphony' below.

Big Daddy Kane had intricate lyrical style and was able to rap quickly as well as acheive a smooth, mellow delivery despite having asthma. The name Kane is from the TV series 'Kung Fu' whose protagonist is called 'Caine'. Kane is also meant to stand for, 'King Asiatic Nobody's equal'!

Kane was also a member of the five percent nation. His music touched on many subjects including: Race, on the track 'Erase racism' (watch the video below), the record industry on 'How U get a Record Deal', (vid below) and his forte, LOVE (go on youtube). His versatile style is something that is missing in Hip Hop today. BDK was able to display love and affection to females on a record, a very rare thing in mainstream Hip Hop nowadays. He was also able to touch on political issues whilst maintaing credibility and record sales. He also wrote some of Biz Markie's early lyrics.BDK is one of the dopest originators.

You can watch the documentary 'The Big Daddy Kane Story' in full right here...

Tuesday, 7 April 2009

'The Lyricist Lounge' show was a comedy/rap sketch show aired on MTV in the late 90's.

It featured rappers such as Wordsworth,Thirstin Howl the 3rd, Common & Slick Rick, with a special guest on every week. As well as being incredibly entertaining I think it was good for Hip Hop culture in that it displayed rap as a true artform. The improvisation and ingenuity of the artists freestyling on the show was not something that was often aired on television. Thus it gave audiences a chance to see the true nature of Hip Hop: having fun and being creative.Watching the show made people realise freestyling and emceeing wasn't easy, you had to be intelligent and quick to do it.

Little seems to be left of 'The Lyricist Lounge Show'. Its nowhere to be found on the internet, let alone the DVD store; there is a sparse IMDB profile and a few manky youtube clips. It's nowhere to be found on the MTV website, even though they used to broadcast the show.

What has become of this amazing show? Will it ever be repeated on TV or is it lost forever in a limbo like state that sometimes besets a cancelled t.v show?

Please enjoy what is left of the show below and pray for a day when quality, intelligent Hip Hop programming is nurtured and not left to decay like levees in New Orleans.

Monday, 6 April 2009

The Red Bull Music Academy is an annual event where the creme of the international music scene gather to exchange ideas, stories and rhythms. Beatmakers, DJs and musicians give lectures on their lives according to music; the unedited format of the lecture allows for the lecturers to drop gems of advice and get intimate on the subject.

Academy participants all collaborate on a small number of music projects at the academy. The RBMA is like a workshop for the exhchange of ideas: techniques and technology as well as insider information about the record industry.

Some of my favorite artists have been lecturers at RBMA such as DJ Premier, Madlib, Questlove and SA-RA. They all drop crazy knowledge about music & how they got to where they are now through their art. Questlove breaks down Hip-Hop chronologically as it relates to his crew, The Roots. I learned so much from this lecture. Firstly Quest is the biggest music nerd in the World and super geeky when it comes to Hip Hop, thus he is incredibly good at articulating the story of Hip Hop via his crew. He has the unique viewpoint of growing up at the same time as the Hip Hop whilst playing an active role in the art form as well as an being an avid admirer and fan.

So check out ?uestlove from the legendary Roots crew dropping serious knowledge on what Hip Hop is.